work life balance

Healthy Mind; Yoga

Posted on by lovinglifeasateacher

Yoga was always one of those things I was skeptical about. Can I really feel like I’ve done a good, sweaty workout by doing a bunch of poses? The answer is YES.

Now I am no expert at all. At the moment, I would say I’m a yoga dabbler however, I can say I can hold crow pose for 50 seconds now.

Yoga has opened up a door for me and there are three reasons why I love it:

  1. I can do it when I get home after a stressful day in my living room.
  2. It pushes me physically and mentally
  3. It makes me feel good!

At the moment I’m following a simple routine that I am aiming to complete once a day. When I’m feeling energetic, I will do two rounds. When I’m feeling lethargic, I’ll do 1 round.

I’m currently following this little routine:

9 Yoga Poses For a Perky Booty (Video)

I hold each pose for 30 seconds or for 6-7 deep breaths. One thing, I’ve learnt along the way so far, breathing is everything in yoga! Don’t forget to breathe!

I follow my work out with crow pose, which I’m challenging myself everyday to do for longer and longer and a plank.

5-poses-to-prepare-for-crow-pose

plank1

So all I can say now is, go on, give it a go! Yes you will wobble and fall all over the place to begin with but baby steps… you’ll love it.

 

Healthy Eating; Creamy Coconut Chicken

Posted on by lovinglifeasateacher

If there’s one thing you can take control of and live life for the better it’s having a healthy diet. I don’t mean curly kale shakes. Although those green disgusting looking shakes, I’m sure, are wonderful for you, but you just need a well balanced, healthy meal!

If there’s one condition that these healthy recipes must have, it’s that they must be quick! I don’t have time after a long, hard days work of teaching with countless children sucking every bit of energy out of me to be slaving over a hot stove.

So here is one example of a quick, healthy eating recipe that doesn’t only make me happy at the end of a stressful working day, but also makes my husband very happy! Winner!

It’s called: Creamy Coconut Chicken

What you need:

  • Chicken breasts (or thighs if you want a tastier bit of chicken!)
  • Coconut oil
  • Lime
  • Coconut cream (organic)
  • A red fresh Chilli
  • Chicken Stock
  • Coriander
  • Brown rice

Now as you can see I also go for as few ingredients as possible – easy peasy!

One other thing; I understand it’s more expensive but try to get organic everything!
Filling your body with addictive additives, E numbers etc.. can’t be good, right?!

I like to tell myself; as long as it’s organic and free from disgusting E numbers, then my body is going to be much happier and not crave those sugary additives; an all-round healthier way to live. Body is a temple and all that…

Back to the recipe…

Really simply…

  1. Fry up the chicken in a pan in coconut oil until brown all over.
  2. Take out the chicken and place on a plate.
  3. In the pan, fry up the chopped up fresh chilli, add in the chicken stock, juice from the lime. Bring to the boil and then simmer.
  4. Add in the coconut milk and simmer for about another 5 minutes.
  5. Add the chicken back in and cook for another 5-10 minutes.
  6. Add in some chopped coriander.
  7. Serve up with some brown rice and enjoy!

I have bank of these really tasty, healthy but EASY (easy being the key word here) recipes. Keep checking, subscribe and I’ll keep you posted with more!